What is January to you?

Fellow Wine Lovers,

A Happy New Year to you all, we’d like to wish health and happiness in abundance with just enough stress to help you appreciate the good stuff more.
Has anyone got any good resolutions going on? At this end of the wire we’ve had Wayne resolving to find a new joke and Alex promising to laugh at it should it happen. Sadly, both seem a bit pie in the sky but we’ll struggle on.

So what is January to you? For us it’s a big VAT return, large gaps between customers and a fair chunk of tastings.

Veganuary certainly seems to have worked for Greggs, whose vegan sausage roll has taken up nearly as much column space as Speaker Bercow.

Dry-January is something we try not to encourage for obvious reasons. If you’re giving it a go, we’ll wish you luck and welcome you back with open arms when you’re ready. Should you have a hankering for a fizz Friday we’d just ask if you’ve tried our alcohol free sparkler Bees Knees (£5.99).

Ginuary is definitely one we like the sound of. For a start, it’s inclusive for all the Veganuarists – there’s definitely no animal slavery in a bottle of Gin. There is also plenty of variety of gins, mixers and cocktails. How about Sloe gin and ginger beer perhaps? Or maybe a ginger martini to ward off this cold weather (Try a slug each of Kings Ginger and Hepple Gin shaken over ice, then served with just a splash of blood orange juice and a twist of peel too!) If you don’t have a cocktail shaker that protein shake bottle will do the trick perfectly well.

Tanuary we believe involves heading somewhere warm and sunny for a month, appealing certainly, but not practical with the commute. Worth investigating in retirement, we suspect.

Danuary involves wearing red sweaters and eating cow pie, the very antithesis of Veganuary!

Fanuary is, apparently, similar to Movember, don’t ask…

Tri-January we think may involve entering and training for a triathlon. You’ll know better than us if that’s likely to be your thing but do give us a wave if you see us when you’re out training.

Try- January is another version we like the sound of. Try something new each week would be our thoughts, be that a new vegetable, a new magazine or a new radio station. Wayne tried the vegetable salsify for the first time this week, there’s a new compilation album, Step Forward Youth on Greensleeves, that’s definitely worth a listen for the reggae lovers amongst you, it certainly made us feel warmer.

We’d also suggest trying one of our Cheese & Wine evenings. We’ll try four cheeses with seven wines all for £20. Sound good? Here at the shop from 8pm on the following Thursday evenings…

Thursday 14th February

Thursday 14th March

Thursday 25th April

Thursday 23rd May

Thursday 20th June

Thursday 18th July

Book your place promptly as they tend to fill up fast!

January Jollies
As has become our custom we are operating our annual January ‘Buy six bottles and you’ll only pay for five of them’ deal. That’s a whopping 16.66% discount that we like to think of as a thank you for your continued support, rather than a cynical ploy to get you in the shop in this quiet month. As usual we’ll make exceptions on spirits and the posh champagnes for operational reasons.

Closed – Monday 14th January – All Day
We’ll be at a big supplier tasting all day on Monday 14th January so the shop will remain closed. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Tasting This Weekend

In the spirit of Try-January we will be opening some fine samples this weekend.

Alex met a chap from a South African winery a few months ago and he very kindly arranged for us to receive some samples. It’s top, top quality wine from an estate founded on the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge near Hermanus. We’ll taste a Chardonnay, a Reserve Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir and a Syrah/Grenache blend all from Creation wines, named the Most Wine Innovative Estate in South Africa at the 2016 Great Wine Capitals of the World Awards.

These are just samples so we don’t have any stock but, depending on your feedback, we could do soon!

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